Sheet material handling systems frequently require sheet material or assembled collations thereof to be turned over to match a specific downstream requirement. For example, mailpiece fabrication equipment typically requires that sheet material be oriented face-up or face down depending upon the orientation of a receiving envelope This requirement has come under increasing demand as new and old equipment have, over the course of time, been merged. That is, some mailpiece fabrication systems require a face-up orientation while others employ a face-down presentation. Effective utilization and coordination of all systems/machines becomes inefficient when specific mailpiece fabrication jobs can only be processed on specific machines.
Various inversion modules have been developed to reorient sheet material for use in sheet handling equipment. One such apparatus is a twist module wherein sheets of material are directed linearly along a spiral path typically effected by a series of twisted belts or chords. While such twist modules retain the respective leading and trailing edge position of the sheet material, such modules require a lengthy axial path to change the face-up/face-down orientation of the sheet material. Furthermore, twist modules are less reliable when handling stacked collations inasmuch as the stacked sheets tend to skew as they follow the spiral path. Moreover, such twist modules are not reconfigurable to handle straight runs wherein sheet material inversion is not required. Consequently, another module must be introduced in place of the twist module to reconfigure the sheet material handling equipment.
A need, therefore, exists for a sheet inversion apparatus which is space efficient, reliable (especially when handling stacked collations) and is reconfigurable to facilitate multiple sheet feeding requirements.
The invention will be fully understood when reference is made to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.